BILL NUMBER: S6352
SPONSOR: RIVERA
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to including nurse prac-
titioners as a provider of services for purposes of collaborative drug
therapy management; and to amend chapter 21 of the laws of 2011 amending
the education law relating to authorizing pharmacists to perform colla-
borative drug therapy management with physicians in certain settings, in
relation to making the authorization for pharmacists to perform collabo-
rative drug therapy management permanent
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To extend and expand provisions enacted in 2011 that permit pharmacists
to collaborate with physicians in the provision of collaborative drug
therapy to include nurse practitioners.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends section 6801-a of the Education Law, as it
relates to the collaborative drug therapy management demonstration
program, to add nurse practitioners (NPs) and allow NPs to enter into
collaborative agreements with pharmacists by which drug therapies would
be reviewed, evaluated, and managed; and it would authorize Collabora-
tive Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) to occur in all hospitals and other
Article 28 facilities, such as nursing homes and clinics; and permits
the State Education Department in consultation with the Department of
Health, to include up to fifteen community practice sites as authorized
locations for the provision of CDTM.
Section 2 of the bill would repeal the expiration date of the prior
statute and make the provisions permanent.
Section 3 provides the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Legislation enacted in 2011 established the Collaborative Drug Therapy
Management (CDTM) Demonstration Program, by which pharmacists, working
in collaborative agreements with physicians, could adjust, manage, eval-
uate, and implement drug therapies for patients in certain settings. The
current law only applies to teaching hospitals and their affiliated
outpatient and freestanding clinics.
This bill would extend the current CDTM program to all Article 28
licensed healthcare facilities (hospitals, clinics, and residential
healthcare facilities) and permit the practice on a more limited basis
in certain community-based settings. This bill would also permit nurse
practitioners to engage in collaborative agreements with pharmacists.
Adverse drug reactions or adverse drug events (ADRs or ADEs) are
reported to be among the leading causes of death in the United States,
behind only heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The most updated finan-
cial information on ADRs suggests that previous estimates may signif-
icantly understate the extent of the issue. A recent comprehensive study
of medication errors estimated that as many as 2.7 million errors occur
each year in hospitals in the United States, adversely affecting 130,000
patients. Studies have shown that at least 28% of these errors were
preventable. Nearly half of the errors made resulted from errors in the
prescribing process. These medication errors are potentially dangerous
to patients and extremely costly to the healthcare system, resulting in
additional and unnecessary expenditures of as much as $177 billion per
year. Of this amount, seventy percent was attributed to unnecessary
hospital admissions or prolonged hospital stays due to medication
errors. Virtually every other state permits CDTM, most of which author-
ize the practice in many more settings than permitted under the current
New York State law. The results have been uniformly positive: CDTM,
along with pharmacist-provided drug information services, adverse drug
reaction monitoring, drug pro- tocol management, and medial rounds
participation by pharmacists, have all shown to make a statistically
significant contribution to the reduction of medication errors. The
expansion of the statute to additional settings and the authorizing of
Nurse Practitioners as collaborating practitioners is warranted not only
by the success of the New York State initiative but also based on other
states' records.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022: S4689 Rivera / A1036 Seawright
2023-2024: S4043 Rivera / A9702 Seawright
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the 120 days after it shall have become a
law; provided that, effective immediately, the addition, amendment,
and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation
of this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be made
and completed on or before such effective date.

Statutes affected:
S6352: 6801-a education law